Yeah, it's late, so?....These guys couldn't stand up for awhile, hence the name. That's all you get in this Episode 20 description. Oh, yeah! It's Episode 20, and it's a classic.

X-Division Revival 101

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If you asked the following question to true wrestling fans a decade ago it would garner the following response: “It’s a division filled with high-flying, high-risk and fast-paced action. It’s WCW’s cruiserweight division at its best, just on steroids. It’s something WWE could never replicate”. But asking that question to wrestling fans today, you’d be met with a response like “it’s a defunct division right? I think TNA did away with it. I never see any of the division’s wrestlers on TV”. Or more embarrassingly the response you’d get would be extremely negative about how crappy the division has gotten. If you’re still unsure about what that question is, it’s rather simple. What is the X-Division?

If you watch Impact Wrestling every week you’ll easily see that TNA (management) doesn’t know what the answer to that question is or what it should be. Now this TNA Take isn’t about bashing TNA for how terrible they have made the division, but it’s about practical and realistic ways TNA can go about improving the division and bringing it back to prominence. Of course, this process is going to take time and it’s going to cost money, but I think the end result will not only be great for the wrestling fans, but it will be fantastic for TNA too.

First and foremost, stop slowing down the pace of the X-Division matches. I get that some people in management wants the wrestlers to tell a story in the ring and they feel the wrestlers can’t do it wrestling too fast, but a fast pace wrestling style is how the X-Division wrestlers tell their story. We could come up with amazing ideas, but if this doesn’t get sorted out, all of those changes would’ve been in vain. Let the wrestlers go out there from the get-go and put on a great fast-paced and high-flying extravaganza.

Secondly, give the X-Division wrestlers more time to tell their story in the ring. You can’t expect the wrestlers to do their best and put on 5-star matches if they are limited by the amount of time they get. You can’t also expect the fans to care about the X-Division and take it seriously if the division’s champion doesn’t even defend his title in 30 days.

The third point to consider is making the X-Division feel special again. Great action is all fine and dandy, but why not milk the division to get that extra viewers and more money? TNA’s X-Division style is taking over the Indies, cash-in on that and bring it back to TNA, but make it into something much bigger. This can be done by following the following sub-points:

3.1. Let the X-Division main event some of the episodes of Impact. If you book a feud between two great X-Division wrestlers and put some time into making this feud mean something, the pay-off to this feud by making them face in the main event of an episode of Impact and wrestling for 15-20 minutes would be great. You’d slowly but surely get more guys on your roster that people would care about because the people can see that TNA cares about those wrestlers.

3.2. Hold annual X-Division tournaments. For this, I’d have TNA actually introduce two new tournaments. One in which 8 or 16 current TNA X-division wrestlers and indy wrestlers battle it out to determine the King Of The X-Division. The winner of this tournament gets a shot at the TNA X-Division Championship at Bound For Glory. The second tournament is an 8 team X-Division tournament in which 8 X-Division tag teams compete with the winner facing the TNA Tag Team Champions on an episode of Impact Wrestling in the main event. The rewards for winning these tournaments are all big and if TNA treats it as a big deal, fans would too.​3.3. Introduce some new match types for the division. While Ultimate X is an awesome and creative match-up for the division, if the division really starts to pick up again you can’t have each of the division’s big matches taking place under these rules. You need some fresh match types.

The last point to consider is the X-Division’s Option C. I’ve hated this concept since the first time I read about it. If you have the X-Division champion giving up his championship to compete for the world title, you’re basically telling everyone that the X-Division championship and X-Division itself is worthless. TNA should definitely think about removing this option, preferably after the X-Division champion this year rejects giving up his championship.

If TNA follows these very simple points above, they’ll end up with a division that not only puts on great wrestling, but they now have a division wrestling fans will go out of their way to support again. A guy like AJ Styles was built into a main eventer from the X-Division, think about the potential future AJ Styles we might get from that division if TNA actually revives the division again. But now they’re not going to see that potential from any X-Division wrestler since they are all restricted in the ring and with their character.

I really hope to see TNA at least following some of these points and that they get the X-Division back to where it once was. As the most important thing in TNA and the most exciting element in the wrestling industry.

We want to make this show even better. So we ask: What do you like about the HeelCast? What don't you like? What would you like to have on the HeelCast? And what don't you want to have on it anymore?

Sound off in the comments or on Twitter @TNAHeelCast. We might talk about it or feature it on next week's HeelCast.